“Pathetic” was Martina Navratilova's dismissal of an Australian Open women's final that lasted a minute under an hour and was a lesson in meek capitulation.

Enough of these wretched matches have been witnessed to question whether the grand-slam tournaments were not pandering to the equal rights lobby more than considering value for money when they all fell into line and offered the same prize-fund for the women as the men.

Dinara Safina won three games in the final against Serena Williams, earned $1,000,000 (about £685,000) and did not look the slightest bit miffed about it. So did Roger Federer, for winning 25 games in the men's climax.

Give Williams her due, for she annihilated Safina, the world No 3 from Russia, and thoroughly merited her tenth grand-slam title. At 27, Williams has earned more money than any female athlete in the world, so there was plenty of reason for her to dance a jig of joy.

One has to wonder who is around who might challenge Serena - and her sister Venus - in the other three grand-slam events this year. Maria Sharapova's right shoulder cannot heal quickly enough, Elena Dementieva has to show her pedigree finally at this level and Jelena Jankovic must start to play in these championships as she does in the lesser events.

Until that happens, more finals such as this will have to be endured, as well as the rows of empty seats that greeted the participants, a lot more of which were without occupants at its end.

Laura Robson's attempt to add the girls' singles title to her success at Wimbledon fell flat, the 15-year-old Briton making little impression in a 6-3, 6-1 defeat by Ksenia Pervak, 17, the third-seeded Russian.